New York Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash

Last Friday, I worked at the Burger Bash for the New York Wine & Food Festival. It was a ton of fun; Maddie and I helped check in VIPs, we ate a ton of burgers, and took lots of pictures!

Maddie and I checked in 50 VIPs, took them to meet Spike Mendelsohn, and gave them signed copies of his new cookbook:

We also walked around while everyone was setting up:

The Coke lounge, where we rested after eating about 20 burgers:

Sweet Street Desserts had an amazing ice sculpture that held a ton of parfaits (I had the mango, tiramisu, peanut butter and jelly, and malt):

Cupcakes:

Lure Fishbar had a pretty good burger (I went there last night and sampled the full-sized version):

Bobby’s Burger Palace was setting up – I didn’t know it was Bobby Flay’s burger palace because it was in Paramus, New Jersey:

The chef from Lure telling someone about their burger:

The Dutch had some okay burgers:

21 Club joined in the burger bash and entered with a crab cake (I was not a fan):

Bill’s Bar and Burger served their burgers on REALLY STALE English muffins that were not good at all:

Maddie and I both thought the burgers from Morton’s would be hot since they were being stored under covers but we were both disappointed when we found out they were really lukewarm:

You can kind of see Bobby Flay in this picture:

Maddie and I both loved Bobby’s burger and thought he would win; his burger had melted cheese and tortilla chips on it and a really good bun. It was absolutely delicious and even though it didn’t have a lot of condiments, the unexpected crunch and salt from the chips made up for it.

Shake Shack gave out their burgers (my mom also went on Friday night and they didn’t have any onions; she said a burger without onions should not be called a burger). They also gave out apple crumble ice cream:

Minetta Tavern’s burger was probably the biggest disappointment of the night; the onions were so sweet that Maddie and I ended up throwing them out after one bite:

Spike Mendelsohn won the burger challenge last year and brought girls dressed up in Halloween costumes to try to get more votes:

Spike dressed up like a king and was parading around with his hired women:

I was a little disappointed with his burger; he tried to make it with a sriracha mayonnaise, pickled carrots, and cilantro, but I didn’t like it:

Me and Maddie with our awesome wine holders:

The wildcard entry from the night – a guy from the hamptons entered the contest without a restaurant (I think) and ended up doing really well (Maddie and I both really liked this burger):

We ate so many burgers I forgot where this one came from, but we liked the crunchy shallots:

See? We ate A LOT:

The judges hard at work:

Anne Burrell was actually running from her car to the VIP entrance because she was late – she has a personality larger than life!

Maddie and I had a great time running around trying all of the burgers that entered. Blue Moon was another sponsor and had painters at the festival painting a Blue Moon portrait, there were sponsors from Sutter Wines giving out wine glasses and lots of samples, and even the New York Times showed up and had a photo booth that Maddie and I stared at for quite some time. We were definitely feeling sick on the way home and I will probably not eat another burger in a very long time.